Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2023 By The Numbers

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023 saw Twilio SendGrid process a record-breaking 10.6 billion emails on Black Friday and 10.3 billion on Cyber Monday, contributing to over 64 billion emails sent during Cyber Week. This represented significant growth in email processing, with volumes increasing by 20.69% and 15.72% for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, respectively. Despite the high volume, email delivery times remained efficient, with a median end-to-end delivery time of three seconds, although some providers like Comcast experienced delays. Engagement metrics revealed a notable rise in spam complaints and a decline in open rates, highlighting the impact of inbox fatigue. Interestingly, while emojis were popular in subject lines, they didn't correlate with the highest open or click rates, emphasizing that personalization and relevance are more critical for engagement. The SendGrid Engagement Quality score dropped by 2.5% during Cyber Week due to lower open rates, underscoring the need for strategic email communication to avoid diminishing returns. As email tracking evolves, the focus is shifting towards clicks as a more reliable engagement metric, especially with changes like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection affecting open rate tracking. Overall, the holiday season was marked by strong growth and effective deliverability, meeting customer expectations at a critical time of the year.